by Amber Neri
Staff Writer
Stars Promys, an 8-year-old purebred Arabian mare, is getting ready to have a baby. Bred to the Cal Poly Pomona premiere stallion Reign On, Stars Promys will foal sometime in early May. The youngster will be named My Passion after her owner, Dr. Carmel Marti Day’s passion for horses.
Dr. Day, a ULV professor and chair of Health Services Management, is Stars Promys’ owner and has been raising Arabian horses for the past 24 years. This breeding program has produced fine show animals like Stars Promys.
Working for ULV for 15 years, Dr. Day has written over 70 articles on both horses and management in her career. Dr. Day received her master’s degree in Health Management from the Claremont Graduate Schools and teaches mainly master’s-level courses. She is a resident of West Covina.
Showing Stars Promys successfully in halter, Hunter, and English Country Pleasure competitions in horse shows where Stars Promys has reaped its rewards. Last October, Stars Promys qualified for the Arabian United States National Championships in Kentucky, where she placed 10th out of 92 other Arabians in Hunter’s Pleasure.
Stars Promys’ dam was named Mysdys StarsBorrn and she was bred in Thousand Oaks at David Murdock’s ranch, Ventura Farms, to his stallion, Nankin. Stars’ sire is the last son of Aswan, an ancient gift from the Egyptians to the Russians for building the Aswan Dam.
This ancient gift of the Arabian horse was regarded as a priceless treasure because of the value placed upon these beautiful animals. The Arabian horse has been around for 3,500 years, making it the oldest breed on the face of the earth.
With all of this success, Day does not ride Stars Promys. Riding by a person other than a trainer can confuse a show horse by giving wrong types of signals that it responds to from the trainer and only the trainer.
“I choose not to ride her—I do not want to mess with success,” said Dr. Day.
The horse’s trainer, Chris Culbreth, is the only one to ride the prize-winning mare. She is kept at Magic Meadows in Temecula, where boarders take care of her every need. Although it is a long way from West Covina, Dr. Day manages to get out to see her Star at least every other weekend.
Stars Promys was orphaned at two months of age when her mother was diagnosed with a post-partum disease. After five hours of surgery in which 80 percent of her colon removed, the disease left her full of toxemia and she died. Dr. Day found a surrogate mother for the young Stars Promys and she was nursed by a mare belonging to Dr. Day’s horse insurance agent in Chino.
Aside from being an exceptional show mare, Stars Promys has a special habit when she snacks.
“She eats carrots like a Cuisinart; I give her a carrot and it [the bite] is so precise. Chomp, chomp, chomp as she feeds them in,” said Dr. Day, a smile warming her face.
All of this precision and care has given way to what is looked at by Dr. Day as a legacy filled with romance.
“There is a lot of history, mystique and fun in all of this [Arabian horses]. I am trying to research the ‘Mark of Allah.’ I have been asked to be a docent at the Cal Poly Arabian Horse Collection, which is a huge collection,” she said.
Conducting much of her research there, Dr. Day says that there is a saying which is supposed to have come from Allah which states that there will come a gray mare with three sacred markings, proving she is special. They include a white star on the forehead, a crescent mark on the hind hoof and the ‘Bloodied Hand of Allah,’ which is a strawberry colored birthmark on the right shoulder. Stars Promys possesses all three.
Bedouin tribes bred Egyptian desert horses a long time ago, from which the modern-day Arabians are descended. There is an old Bedouin tribal custom that the most valuable mares would be allowed to stay in the tents with their masters. As for Dr. Day and her Stars Promys, she said, “If I had a tent, she would be in it. She is sweet, kind and loving.”
Dr. Day, who was recently appointed to the editorial board for the journal Medical Laboratory Management; Forms, Checklists & Guidelines, also has other passions. She owns two Doberman Pinschers, named Brut and Magic, two Siamese cats, named Mei Ling and Samaurei, and nine Koi fish, which she keeps in a pond at her house. Dr. Day also enjoys playing racquet ball in her leisure time. However, her most enjoyable passion of all is ULV and its students.
